< Back

Giving Back to Move Forward

BY: Marc Peruzzi | Photograph by Joe Esenther | FEBRUARY 10, 2022

How Big Sky is tackling growth.

Still a relatively new place, Big Sky Resort

was founded in the early 1970s by famed NBC broadcast newsman Chet Huntley and purchased by Boyne Resorts in 1976 after Huntley’s untimely death. It was a pretty quiet ski area until the Lone Peak Tram was installed in 1995. Beyond a bit of seasonal work bumping chairs or teaching skiing, there weren’t enough jobs to create an employee housing crisis. In the early 2000s, new development projects sprung up around Big Sky Resort including the Yellowstone Club, Spanish Peaks, and Moonlight Basin, but the financial crisis of the late 2000s slowed growth considerably in the area for a time.

As is the nature of things, Big Sky was “found”—slowly, and then seemingly all at once. Stable ownership of the larger development projects created accelerated demand for the area. Winter visitation was further accelerated by Big Sky Resort’s popularity with IKON passholders and the resort’s significant investments in lift infrastructure as part of the Big Sky 2025 vision. Today, Big Sky resides amongst the pantheon of North American destination ski resorts alongside Jackson Hole, Aspen, Vail, and Whistler Blackcomb. And Big Sky is no longer just a ski town. In summer, nearby Yellowstone National Park has seen annual visitor increases top 10 percent over the past five years. There’s nothing quite like this region in North America—and that’s no longer a secret. The demand for visitation has impacted the local housing market, with over 1,000 units having been converted from employee and community housing to short-term rental housing over the last four years.

While Big Sky has a “Town Center,” it is not a town. Big Sky is still an unincorporated area straddling two different counties, creating both unique challenges and opportunities for addressing local issues. Big Sky isn’t immune to the struggles facing other mountain towns and ski resorts of North America, including housing, environmental and other community concerns. But challenges can also be seen as opportunities. And nowhere is that more true than in Big Sky, which still has time to shape its future.

In late 2019, community members and leaders throughout Big Sky came together with funding from the Big Sky Resort Area District (BSRAD) to draft “Our Big Sky,” the community vision and strategy for articulating the needs and priorities of the community’s growth —focusing on “Our People, Our Character, Our Recreation, and Our Natural Environment.”

FEBRUARY 4, 2022

The Best New Hotels Opening in 2022

As we continue to work our way through the 150+ great new hotels that opened last year, we’re getting distracted by the newcomers on the horizon for 2022. Can you blame us? Montage Big Sky had its soft opening in mid-December in time for the winter ski season at Big Sky near Yellowstone National Park. Adding a luxurious […]

Read More >
APRIL 8, 2022

Mountain Weather. Mountain Snow, Mountain Sense

Does that chute cliff out? Will the kids like this run? Is that ice or wet snow on that face? Can the snowboarder in the crew glide this traverse? Is the Big Couloir beyond my ski level? To be a skier is to hone your mountain sense. It begins with knowing mountain weather—and the everchanging […]

Read More >
NOVEMBER 25, 2024

The vision behind Tom’s 10 at Spanish Peaks Mountain Club

A top-10 experience We started back up in June 2023, coming off one of the biggest snow years and wettest springs that I have ever experienced. Because of the snowpack and wet weather, we couldn’t get out to do any work on the par 3 until late June. It was a busy 2023 season with […]

Read More >